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 6
C H A P T E R

Managing Quality

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 5. Deming (14 points, leadership and training; good workers
cannot overcome bad processes), Crosby (Quality is Free—the
1. Higher quality leads to greater demand, greater market share,
cost of poor quality is underestimated), and Juran (top manage-
and greater economies of scale. In addition, higher quality leads to
ment involvement in quality is vital).
less scrap, rework, and warranty cost, hence to less input required
for the same output. AACSB: Reflective thinking
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM 6. The seven tools of TQM are:
AACSB: Reflective thinking  Check sheets
 Scatter diagrams
2. The criteria are a set of questions about seven critical aspects of  Histograms
managing and performing as an organization:  Pareto charts
1. Leadership  Flowcharts
 Cause-and-effect diagrams
2. Strategic planning  Statistical process control charts
3. Customer focus LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM
4. Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management 7. If there is fear, people will not bring up problems. If there is
5. Workforce focus no pride in work, there is no motivation. If management does not
6. Operations focus lead by example, why should employees care?
7. Results AACSB: Reflective thinking
Source: 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence, http:// 8. A university can seek to control the quality of its graduates by:
www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/archive/2013_2014_business  Setting specific goals for its overall accomplishments
_nonprofit_criteria.cfm  Employing quality faculty
AACSB: Information technology  Setting appropriate standards (prerequisites, GPA, required
credit hours, etc.)
3. Of Deming’s 14 points, “finding problems” is certainly one of  Employing appropriate evaluation devices (quizzes,
the three. The selection of the other two is not as clear-cut. Many examinations, term papers, etc.)
would say “reducing fear” is important, but its purpose is really to
AACSB: Reflective thinking
find problems. The first point, on getting management to put forth
common goals and stick with them—“constancy of purpose”—is 9. Philip B. Crosby believed that quality is free because, on bal-
our second choice. The third is “methods”—not giving goals ance, the quality (doing things right the first time) costs only a frac-
without providing the methods to achieve them. tion of the benefits. The cost of poor quality is vastly understated,
which makes good quality free.
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10. Quality robustness, quality loss function, and target-oriented
4. Seven concepts for an effective TQM program: continuous quality.
improvement, Six Sigma, employee empowerment, benchmark-
LO 6.5: Explain quality robust products and Taguchi concepts
ing, just-in-time, Taguchi concepts, and knowledge of TQM tools.
The 14 points were Deming’s way of showing how he implement- 11. A Pareto chart’s purpose is to identify the critical problems
ed TQM. and separate them from the less important ones.
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking AACSB: Reflective thinking
12. Ishikawa “causes”: material, machinery/equipment, methods,
and manpower.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc. 73

74 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y
13. Inspect at your supplier’s plant while the supplier is produc-
ing, inspect at your facility upon receipt of goods from your suppli-
er, inspect before costly or irreversible processes, inspect during the
step-by-step production process, inspect when production or service
is complete, and inspect before delivery from your facility; all work
well in manufacturing. Inspection at point of customer contact does
not.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
14. The design and delivery of service can make a difference in
the tangible components of service, containing the determinants of
service quality in the process design, managing expectations, and
having alternate plans for exceptions.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
15. Source inspection: consistent with the concept of employee
empowerment, individual employees self-check their work and
verify the work of the employee preceding them.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
16. According to Berry, Zeithaml, and Parasuraman, the 10
determinants of service quality are:
 Reliability
 Responsiveness
 Competence
 Access
 Courtesy
 Communication
 Credibility
 Security
 Understanding/knowing the customer
 Tangibles
17. If one adopts a definition of quality based upon “satisfying
stated or implied needs,” it is difficult to imagine any product that
would not be required to be of high quality.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18. Counting the number of e’s in the OM in Action box:
RICH#Y INT#RNATIONAL’S SPI#S
How do luxury hot#ls maintain quality? Th#y insp#ct. But
wh#n th# product is on#-on-on# s#rvic#, larg#ly d#p#nd#nt on
p#rsonal b#havior, how do you insp#ct? You hir# spi#s!
Rich#y Int#rnational is th# spy. Pr#f#rr#d Hot#ls and
R#sorts Worldwid# and Int#rcontin#ntal Hot#ls hav# both
hir#d Rich#y to do quality #valuations via spying. Rich#y
#mploy##s posing as custom#rs p#rform th# insp#ctions.
How#v#r, #v#n th#n manag#m#nt must hav# #stablish#d what
th# custom#r #xp#cts and sp#cific s#rvic#s that yi#ld custom#r
satisfaction. Only th#n do manag#rs know wh#r# and how to
insp#ct. Aggr#ssiv# training and obj#ctiv# insp#ctions
r#inforc# b#havior that will m##t thos# custom#r
#xp#ctations.
Th# hot#ls us# Rich#y’s und#rcov#r insp#ctors to #nsur#
p#rformanc# to #xacting standards. Th# hot#ls do not know
wh#n th# #valuators will arriv#. Nor what alias#s th#y will
us#. Ov#r 50 diff#r#nt standards ar# #valuat#d b#for# th#
insp#ctors #v#n ch#ck-in at a luxury hot#l. Ov#r th# n#xt 24
hours, using ch#ck lists, tap# r#cordings, and photos, writt#n
r#ports ar# pr#par#d. Th# r#ports includ# #valuation of stan-
dards such as:
Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Do#s th# doorman gr##t #ach gu#st in l#ss than 30
s#conds?
 Do#s th# front d#sk cl#rk us# th# gu#st’s nam# during
ch#ck-in?
 Is th# bathroom tub and show#r spotl#ssly cl#an?
 How many minut#s do#s it tak# to g#t coff## aft#r th#
gu#st sits down for br#akfast?
 Did th# wait#r mak# #y# contact?
 W#r# Minibar charg#s post#d corr#ctly on th# bill?.
#stablish#d standards, aggr#ssiv# training, and insp#ctions
ar# part of th# TQM #ffort at th#s# hot#ls. Quality do#s not
happ#n by accid#nt.
There are 189 total e’s, each identified by a # sign: 3 are in
the title, 18 in the 1st paragraph, 62 in the 2nd, 50 in the 3rd, and
56 in the list and last paragraph.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
The ethics issue here is certainly less clear than some of the
equally prominent situations that have arisen in the past few
decades. Some of these are:
 The asbestos litigation of 2003 cost over $200 billion and
put nine defendants out of business.
 Firestone discounted sales of defective tires to the south-
eastern U.S. and recalls of 13.5 million tires cost $200
million.
 A.H. Robins’s Dalkon Shield intrauterine device (IUD)
resulted in 18 U.S. deaths and 11,000 lawsuits. It forced
Robins into Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Searles’s
similar product, the Copper 7, was pulled from the U.S.
market and then sold overseas.
Is McDonald’s at fault? Students can do a Web search and find
numerous articles on these lawsuits. It appears that the company
should have had a presumption of danger to customers from
the scalding hot coffee. However, “good” coffee is apparently
prepared with very hot water.
See the text discussion regarding perspective of quality: User
based (quality is in the eyes of the beholder); manufacturing based
(quality conforms to standards); and product based (quality is
precise and measurable).
ACTIVE MODEL EXERCISE (AVAILABLE IN MYOMLAB)
ACTIVE MODEL 6.1: Pareto Charts
1. What percentage of overall defects do the room service com-
plaints account for?
72%
2. If we could reduce the room service complaints in half, how
does this affect the chart?
The bar for room service is cut in half. The cumulative
curve begins lower and has a steeper build.
 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 75

END-OF-CHAPTER PROBLEMS (PROBLEMS WITH 6.5 (a)

ASTERISKS ARE IN MYOMLAB ONLY; PROBLEMS y
WITH # SYMBOLS ARE NOT IN MYOMLAB) minutes
14
6.1 (a)
13

12

11

10

x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Trips

(b) This is a scatter diagram.

6.6# Partial flowchart for planning a party
There are many forms and symbols used in flowcharts. One
approach follows:

(b) 39% of complaints, W, are demeaning toward women.

6.2# The idea is to get students to seek out information via a
scatter diagram. For instance, a scatter diagram with pages of a
major city newspaper on the y-axis and day of the week on the
x-axis would show clusters of low pages on Saturday and proba- Another approach is a work breakdown structure similar to
that shown in Chapter 3 (see Figure 3.3). Also see Chapter 6,
bly Monday and high pages on Sunday.
Figure 6.6e.
6.3 From these statistics, it would appear that a student could
6.7#
argue that some of the cause of the poor grade was due to factors
primarily outside his/her control . . . and poor planning. (a) A possible list might include:
 Running light
Reason for Poor Grade Frequency %  Speeding
Difficulty understanding material 25 37  No turn signal
Insufficient time to complete 15 22  Failure to yield on left turn
Distractions in exam room 9 13  No stop when turning right on red light
Late arrival to exam 7 10  Blocking intersection on red
Felt ill during exam 4 6
 Honking horn when light turns green
Forgot exam was scheduled 3 4
 Not observing light when it turns green
Insufficient preparation time 2 3
 Turning from wrong lane
Studied wrong material 2 3
Calculator batteries died during exam 1 1  Appear to go through light but stop suddenly
 Other
6.4# Individual response, but we should have frequency on the
y-axis and time, perhaps in 15-second intervals at most fast-food
restaurants, on the x-axis.

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

76 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y

Check sheet might look like the following:

Location: 2nd
Time of Day
and Forrester
Poor Driving
Habit 7:00–7:20 A.M. 10:00–10:20 A.M. 5:00–5:20 P.M. 7:30–7:50 P.M. Total
Running light     14
Speeding    13
No turn signal     8
Failure to yield on     8
left turn
No stop when    8
turning right on red
light
Blocking   10
intersection on red
Honking horn     12
when light turns
green
Not observing light     6
when it turns green
Turning from   2
wrong lane
Appear to go    4
through light but
stop suddenly
Other     11

The frequency counts for this set of observations is shown on the

Sorted Frequency Table
right. The check sheet can be used to discuss the differences in
driving habits at different times of the day. Poor Driving Habit Frequency

(b) The check sheet results can be sorted into a descending Running light 14
frequency table. Speeding 13
Honking horn when light turns green 12
Other 11
Blocking intersection on red 10
Failure to yield on left turn 8
No stop when turning right on red light 8
No turn signal 8
Not observing light when it turns green 6
Appear to go through light but stop suddenly 4
Turning from wrong lane 2

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 77

A Pareto chart like the one shown below can illustrate the major habits that dominate the behavior. Note: A classic
Pareto chart would also include a cumulative probability line.

Freq. of Occurrence

6.8 Cause-and-effect diagram (also known as a fishbone chart or an Ishikawa diagram) for a dissatisfied
airline customer:

Cause-and-Effect Diagram for Dissatisfied Airline Customer

Material Machinery
Food cold Poor or no food Seats Seats are
uncomfortable too close
Tickets too Not enough Seats are like Need larger
expensive handicap access rocks restrooms
Overpriced food Not enough Reading light A/C not
at airport parking not working blowing cool air
Dissatisfied
customer
Security Lost luggage Need more
lines are awful attendants
Plane was late Dirty Not enough Rude attendants
bathroom ticket agents
Poor connections Not enough
traffic police

Methods Manpower

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

78 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y

6.9 Depending on the type of student body, the response could

vary. A typical chart might look like the following:

6.10 Student answers will depend upon how broadly they define
“registration.” (Is fee payment included? Is academic advising
included?) Manpower issues might include rudeness, lateness,
missing appointments, incompetence. Methods issues might
include excessive red tape, tasks that don’t make sense, rules that
contradict one another, rules that are impossible to interpret or
implement, low enrollment caps on classes, administrators that are
inflexible with exceptions. Machinery issues might include regis-
tration computers that are slow or broken, printer issues, etc.
Material issues might include too few classes at selected hours,
forms that can’t be found, etc.
6.11 A potential chart might look like that shown below. Each
student will brainstorm different bones in the chart, depending on
the particular experiences and systems of the situation.

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 79

6.12 6.13
(a)

Recommendation: Start improvement by focusing on the high-

frequency items (i.e., parking, pool, etc.).

(b) Conclusion: Most of the defects are the result of mis-

placed transistors.
6.14

Manpower Machines
Temperature
Inadequate controls off Antiquated
Incorrect cleanup scales
Variability
measurement Technician
Equipment
Operator calculation off Inadequate
in disrepair
misreads display flow controls
Incorrect
Formulation
Jars Lack of clear
Incorrect
mislabeled instructions
Damaged maintenance
Incorrect raw material Priority Inadequate instructions
weights miscommunication

Materials Methods

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

80 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y

(c) The Pareto chart is:

6.15# Individual responses will vary. ____________________________________________
6.16 (a) The scatter diagram shows a strong positive relationship

(b) The scatter diagram will resemble the chart below:

(d) This is more appropriate for an in-class or group exercise

where students may brainstorm for ideas. The possible
causes should go on the four main bones. An example:

There is an obvious relationship between turnover and quality as

shown in this scatter diagram.

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 81

6.17 Conversion of data into percentages in the first step: (c) Fishbone diagram. Note that not at all of these are
45 easily assigned to a specific M. “Fear or dislike of flying”
Cramped seats =  .087 may be Machinery, Material, Manpower, or Methods
519 (the way the passenger is treated).
16
Cost =  .031 Machinery Methods
519
Fear
57 Seats Security
Dislike/fear flying =  .110 Fear Connections
519 Overcrowding Late
planes/waits Lost luggage
119 Flying
Security =  .229 dislikes
519 Service Cost

12 Fear
Poor service =  .023 Fear Food
519
8 Manpower Material
Connections =  .015
519 (d) Start with most frequent complaints from the Pareto
chart over which you have control as the manager of the
42
Overcrowded planes =  .081 airline: late planes, cramped seats, and overcrowding.
519 These comprise about 28% of the dislikes. Security is
57 mostly outside an airline’s control.
Late planes/waits =  .110 6.18* The idea is to inspect six shirts or blouses for poor stitching,
519
misaligned seams, errors in buttons or buttonholes, collar alignment,
7 etc., and indicate the problems on a shirt template.
Food =  .013
519 6.19*
7
Luggage =  .013
519
51
Other =  .098
519
Note that each person had only one complaint.
(a) The above dislikes total to .81, or 81%. So 19% stated
no dislikes. (This represents 98 responses.)
[So 519 – 421 = 98/519 = 19%.]
(b) Pareto chart:

6.20*

6.21* Individual response, but any retail situation should provide a

rich set of examples: average service time in a bank, uniform
inspection in a restaurant or band, guest response form in a hotel,
faculty evaluation form in a college, etc.

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

82 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y

CASE STUDY
SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: C
1. There are lots of ways to analyze these data. We suggest getting
the student to begin by considering the tools of TQM and go from
there. Here we have weighted these survey data (from Table 6.7)
with 4 for good and 0 for poor in Table 1 below and then ranked
them. This approach yields the data in descending order (Poor to
Good) in Table 2. Then we take the open-ended questions and look
at both the positive and negative responses (Table 3). Then we rank
these in descending order (most negative to least negative).

Table 1: Survey Data, with No. of Responses  Weight Calculated

Weights Total/250
4 3 2 1 0 Total (Average)

Parking 360 315 90 5 0 770 3.08

Entertainment 640 105 52 10 0 807 3.23
Traffic 200 255 96 52 0 603 2.41
Printed Program 264 102 196 22 0 584 2.34
Seating 180 90 230 35 0 535 2.14
Ticket Pricing 420 312 32 15 0 779 3.12
Season Ticket Plans 300 240 108 41 0 689 2.76
Food Selection 620 180 48 11 0 859 3.44
Concession Prices 64 348 116 58 0 586 2.34
Speed of Service 140 135 92 48 0 415 1.66

Table 2: Items in Weighted Descending Order

Speed of Service 1.66 Poor
Seating 2.14
Printed Program 2.34
Concession Prices 2.34
Traffic 2.41
Season Ticket Plans 2.76
Parking 3.08
Ticket Pricing 3.12
Entertainment 3.23
Food Selection 3.44 Good

Table 3: Open-Ended Comments

Results by Topic
Negative Entertainment Positive Negative Facilities Positive

Entertainment 8 14 Seats —
3 Student Behavior 9 Parking —
2 Crowded 5 Need Sky Boxes —
1 Cheerleaders 5 Other 1
1 Programs 2 Bathroom —
Band 1 1 Traffic —
Coach 3
Food
3 Access/Variety —
1 Quality 1
1 Price —

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 83

Table 4: Results in Descending Order

(most negative to least negative)

Seats 14
Parking 9
Need Sky Boxes 5
Other Facilities 5
Student Behavior 3
Access/Variety 3
Crowded 2
Bathrooms 2
Cheerleaders 1
Programs 1
Traffic 1
Quality 1
Price 1
Band
Coach

Figure 1: Cause-and-Effect Diagram for S.W.U.

Note how the survey results differ between the survey and open- 3. The next step is to improve quality by beginning improvement
ended comments. Parking, for instance, comes in second on the with the high-frequency item on the left of the Pareto chart for the
open-ended comments, but with the weighting scheme it is near open-ended negative responses (see Figure 2).
the bottom (Table 2). Bathrooms were not included on the survey Figure 2: Pareto Chart Results for S.W.U.
questions, but show up on the open-ended comments. Different
methodologies often yield different results. Fishbone analysis
appears in Figure 1.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Analytical thinking
2. The survey could have been segmented by faculty, alumni,
guests, and students for an added perspective on quality.
AACSB: Reflective thinking

LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM

AACSB: Application of knowledge

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

84 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y
VIDEO CASE STUDIES
1 THE CULTURE OF QUALITY AT ARNOLD
PALMER HOSPITAL
The Arnold Palmer Hospital (APH) video for this case (10 minutes)
is available in MyOMLab. Also note that the Global Company
Profile that opens this chapter highlights additional issues of quality
related to APH.
1. Why is it important for APH to get the patient’s assessment of
health care quality? Does the patient have the expertise to judge
the health care she receives?
The patient’s assessment of health care quality may drive where
the patient goes the next time services are needed. Patient
complaints may drive an entire medical practice (for example, a
group of 20 OB/GYNs) to send all their patients to a competing
hospital. Patients cannot accurately judge all aspects of their
medical care, or the care of their child, but they can certainly
judge cleanliness, comfort, response times, food, appearances of
competence, staffing shortages, politeness, billing errors, bed wait
times, etc.
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
2. How would you build a culture of quality in an organization
including APH?
To build a culture of quality in a hospital you need (see Figure 6.2
for a model to build on in class):
Organizational practices:
 Leadership: Top-down support for a total quality manage-
ment plan.
 Staff support: Good hiring policies that only select the best
skilled, warmest, most caring, reliable staff.
 A quality plan that is part of the overall strategic plan for
the hospital.
Quality principles:
 Quality standards that can be published, measured, and
compared.
 Customer focus: Procedures to review patient quality care.
Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
TQM tools techniques that foster quality:
Measurements for the cost of quality.
Plans for dealing with safety and liability problems so
they are studied and not allowed to repeat.
Process controls for such areas as lab tests and pharmacy
prescription errors.
Effective supplier evaluation and development.
JIT suppliers.
Employee fulfillment:
 Employee quality circles and programs.
 Quality improvement teams that cover all functional areas.
 Empowered employees
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
3. What techniques does APH practice in its drive for quality
and continuous improvement?
 Uses benchmarking very effectively.
 Employs an executive “dashboard” scoreboard to keep
track of major indices of quality.
 A 24-hour hotline system for patients to reach administra-
tors to report problems.
 Carefully selects and trains its employees and imbues them
with the hospital’s quality credo.
 Empowers employees at all levels to deal with problems of
quality immediately (providing up to $200 in gifts to
satisfy patients/customers).
 Makes extensive use of the tools of quality described in
this chapter, especially Pareto and process charts.
LO 6.4: Explain how benchmarking is used in TQM
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
4. Develop a fishbone diagram illustrating the quality variables
for a patient who just gave birth at APH.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Analytical thinking

2 QUALITY COUNTS AT ALASKA AIRLINES
The 6-minute accompanying video is available in MyOMLab.
1. Alaska Air does have some measure of control over ground
operations even though the entire effort is outsourced to Menzies
and its 500 “ramp agents.” First, as the case notes, the metrics are
detailed, measured, and analyzed, and targets are clearly estab-
lished. There are rewards for outstanding performance (3.7%
bonus) and penalties (up to 5%) for poor performance. Second,
although the ground personnel are not their employees, Alaska
maintains first-line supervisors on the premise, working with
Menzies and treating its ramp agents as equals. Third, Alaska runs
daily reporting sessions to monitor performance continually.
Finally, the subcontractor has every incentive to keep Alaska hap-
py by hiring, training, and retaining quality employees. It provides
the same services for Alaska at many other airports. Losing credi-
bility in the Seattle operations can have implications beyond the
one airport. Plus Menzies provides ground operations for Jet Blue
and Virgin, among other airlines.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
2. Other quality metrics could include number of lost bags,
number of damaged bags, on-time ramp crews, carts/tugs/belt
loaders in proper places on tarmac, crew always behind the safety
lines, no foreign objects on roadways, tow-bars (which tend to be
misplaced and end up at other airlines) all accounted for.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
3. What could an airline have done to accommodate a student’s
complaint? (1) An instant text with information to keep the
customer informed—as Alaska did in the case study. (2) A free
meal or hotel voucher. (3) Frequent flyer points. (4) Help from
ground staff. (5) Immediate money to replace lost clothing and
bags. (6) Constant updates from the pilots or ground supervisor
advising the reason for delays.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
4. Using the table in the case:
93.2% of flights scanned = 1.5 points
63.5% of bags scanned = 2 points
89.6% of bags dropped within 20 minutes = 0 points
Outliers: 15 bags arriving longer than 25 minutes = 1 point
Total TTC = 4.5 points, so the new total equals 93.5 (including
the 10-point bonus)
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Analytical thinking
3 QUALITY AT THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL
The Ritz-Carlton video (7 minutes) is available in MyOMLab.
As an introductory note, students may appreciate the following:
The cost of poor service is tremendous, and the cost is magnified
by the negative impact unsatisfied customers have on prospective
customers, as noted in the following example from Southwest
Airlines:
Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y 85
How important is every Customer to our future? Our Finance
Department reports that our break-even Customer per flight in
1994 was 74.5, which means that, on average, only when Customer
#75 came on board did a flight become profitable.
Aside from that statistical data, let me share with you a down-
to-earth formula devised by our Dallas chief pilot, Ken Gile. It
utilizes our annual profit and total flights flown to clearly illustrate
how vital each Customer is to our profitability and our very
existence.
When you divide our 1994 annual profit by total flights flown,
you get profit per flight
$179,331,000 (annual profit)
= $287 (profit per flight)
624,476 (total flights flown)
Then, divide per flight by Southwest’s system-wide average
one-way fare of $58:
$287 (profit per flight)
= 5 (one-way fares)
$58 (average one-way fares)
The bottom line, only five Customers per flight accounted for
our total 1994 profit!
Source: Freiburg, Kevin, and Jackie Freiburg, “Nuts! Southwest Airlines’
Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success,” Bard Press, 1996, p. 120.
1. The Ritz-Carlton can monitor quality in the short run
by customer feedback. Questionnaires in the room, follow-up
letters and phone calls by independent services, tracking com-
plaints, and ultimately by occupancy rates. There are, of course,
objective measures in many aspects of hotel operations. These
include room cleanliness, quality of food, accuracy of billing, and
reservations.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
2. For companies that expect quality to be more than a slogan we
suggest they follow the ideas of the text:
 A philosophy of continuous improvement
 Employee empowerment
 Benchmarking
 Just-in-time (JIT)
 Knowledge of tools
LO 6.1: Define quality and TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
3. The lack of quality will manifest itself in room rate reductions,
extra supervision, complaints, and ultimately lower occupancy.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
4. Great question for class discussion: Control charts can be used
for tracking customer complaints, Pareto diagrams to find where to
focus improvement efforts, cause-and-effect diagrams to analyze
the source of causes, in the kitchen, reservations, billing, etc.
LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
AACSB: Reflective thinking
5. Some nonfinancial measures of quality might include those
noted above: room service, food quality, customer complaints, etc.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
86 CHAPTER 6 M A N A G I N G Q U A L I T Y

ADDITIONAL CASE STUDY Analysis by Time:

(AVAILABLE IN MYOMLAB)  Wrong wire and wrong core rejects occurred mainly at first of
month on Winder 2 (17/19 before 10th).
WESTOVER ELECTRICAL, INC.
Note: This is a case that can be used as an introduction to TQM Control Charts:
tools or after the tools are introduced as a learning tool demon-  Could use p chart if it is assumed that any one defect results in
strating how Pareto analysis, control charts, and cause-and-effect a defective unit, and there is no more than one defect per
charts are used. inspected unit. Could use c chart to plot number of defects per
sample. Must do separate chart for each Winder.
Pareto Analysis by Winder Cause-and-Effect Chart:
Defect Combined W1 W2 W3
 At least mention.
Abraded Wire 81 3 2 76
Recommendations:
Failed Electrical Test 66 1 3 62
 Find cause for abraded wire and failed electrical test on Winder
Broken Lead 66 62 2 2
#3. Could same cause create both problems? Could eliminate
Wrong Wire 22 2 19 1
56% of all Winder rejects and 97% of Winder #3 rejects.
Broken Winder 10 3 7 0
 Find cause for broken leads on Winder #1. Could eliminate
Tow Wire 9 5 4 0
81% of Winder #1 rejects and 25% of all rejects.
Wrong Core 7 1 5 1
 Find cause for wrong wire and wrong core early in month
Totals 261 77 42 142
on Winder #2. Could it be a new operator who made fewer
Analysis by Winder: mistakes as he/she gained experience?
 Broken leads is a Winder 1 problem (94% of all broken leads LO 6.6: Use the seven tools of TQM
and 81% of Winder 1 problems) AACSB: Analytical thinking
 Wrong wire is a Winder 2 problem (86% of all wrong wires
and 45% of Winder 2 problems)
 Abraded wire and failed electrical test appear to be correlated
and to be a Winder 3 problem (54% and 44% of all Winder 3
problems, respectively).

Copyright ©2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

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month or six weeks without food. Nassau, New Providence, the
capital is chiefly supplied from these islands with the guana.
There are several varieties of this reptile in Australia, but that which
is most common is from four to six feet in length, and from about a
foot and a half to two feet across the broadest part of the back, with
a rough dark skin, enlivened by yellow spots. Although perfectly
harmless, as far as the human race are concerned, this huge lizard
is a terrible foe to the smaller quadrupeds—opossums, bandicoots,
kangaroo-rats, &c.,—on which it preys. It is very destructive also
among hen roosts, and often takes up its quarters in the vicinity of a
farm-house for the convenience of supping on the hens and their
eggs.
The guana is much sought for and esteemed by the blacks as an
article of food, and is frequently presented as a great delicacy to the
young ‘gins.’ By the settlers it is not often eaten, owing to the natural
feeling of dislike which is created by its form and habits. Those,
however, who do not entertain these feelings, or are able to
overcome them, find the flesh of the creature really excellent. It is not
unlike that of a rabbit, to which, in flavour, it is fully equal, and eats
best when stewed or curried.
The guana usually lives in trees, and, on the approach of man, it
invariably makes off with great alacrity, scrambling rapidly up the
nearest trunk; but it is easily brought down by a shot.
Captain Keppel tells us, ‘that while out on a shooting excursion at
Port Essington, he observed a native plucking the feathers off a
goose; while so employed his eye caught the tip-end of the tail of an
iguana, an animal of the lizard kind, about four feet long, which was
creeping up the opposite side of a tree; he tossed the goose, without
further preparation, on to the fire, and ascended the tree as easily as
Jack would run up the well-rattled rigging of a man-of-war. He almost
immediately returned with the poor animal struggling in his scientific
grasp. It was the work of a minute to secure it to a stick of about the
same length as itself to prevent its running away, when it was made
to change places with the goose, which, being warm through, was
considered to be sufficiently done. The whole goose he devoured,
making no bones, but spitting out the feathers. Then came the
iguana’s turn, which, although less tender, was not the less relished.
It appeared to require great muscular strength to detach the flesh
from the skin. The operation being finished, he lay down to sleep.
His wife, having sprinkled him with dirt to keep the flies off, was
proceeding to eat the skin of the iguana, when the arrival of some
more geese offered her a more satisfactory repast.’
The iguana is, I believe, the Talagowa of the natives of Ceylon—le
Monitor terrestre d’Egypte of M. Cuvier. The Indian monitor (Monitor
dracæna, Gray) is found in great abundance in all the maritime
provinces of Ceylon. The natives are partial to its flesh. Dr. Kelaart
states that he once tasted some excellent soup made from a tender
guana, which was not unlike hare soup. At Trincomalee they are
hunted down by dogs, and sold in the market for 6d. each. They feed
on the smaller reptiles and insects, and measure, when large, four
feet five inches. Despite its repulsive appearance, the iguana is
eagerly hunted for food by the natives of Africa, Australia, America,
and Asia.
The eggs of the guana are another article deserving the attention of
gourmands. One of these lizards sometimes contains as many as
four-score eggs. These are about the size of a pigeon’s egg, with a
very soft shell, which contains only a very small quantity of the
albumen. The yolk, unlike that of other eggs, does not become hard
and dry when boiled, but is soft and melting as marrow.
It would be a refreshing sight to see Alderman A., or Sheriff B., or
any other civic dignitary who has gone the round of all the dishes
which native and foreign skill have been able to produce, and to
whom a new combination would convey as much delight as a black
tulip or a blue dahlia would to a horticulturist, partaking for the first
time of pâté de foie gras de l’hiccatee, or a dish of the eggs of the
iguana garnished with anchovies. The inhabitants of some of the
Pacific islands esteem the large oval eggs of the lizards as food.
The meat of the Amblyrynchus subcristatus, another lizard, when
cooked, is white, and by those whose stomachs rise above all
prejudices it is relished as very good. Humboldt has remarked, that
in intertropical South America, all lizards which inhabit dry regions
are esteemed delicacies for the table.
There are an almost innumerable variety of lizards, properly so
called, in all parts of the colony of New South Wales, and the whole
of the larger kinds are used for food by the blacks, although but very
rarely eaten by the settlers. Those who have eaten them, state that
their flesh resembles that of a fowl. The dragon lizard, or as it is
sometimes called, the frilled lizard, is the most remarkable, being
provided with a large frill, which it has the power of extending
suddenly, and in a rather startling manner, when attacked or
alarmed; it is usually about a foot and a half or two feet long. The
Jew lizards are dark coloured, with a dewlapped and puffy
appearance about the throat and neck, varying in size, but seldom
exceeding two feet in length. The scaly lizards are fierce looking,
although harmless, reptiles, with a spotted scaly hide, generally
about a foot long, and remarkable for having small round club-
shaped tails. They are easily domesticated, but as their appearance
is far from attractive, they are seldom made pets of. The large spiny-
backed rock lizard resembles a guana, the only material points of
difference being that it has a heavy dewlap beneath its chin, and a
row of spines along the back from the head to the tail. The flat-tailed
lizard, called by the natives the Rock Scorpion, is imagined by them
to be venomous, although in reality it is perfectly harmless; it is
nocturnal in its habits, and possesses to a peculiar extent the
singular power, which is more or less vested in all the lizard family, of
leaving its tail in the hands of any one who attempts to capture it by
laying hold of that appendage, and of making off apparently
scatheless. The sleeping lizard is in body, as well as in its sluggish
habits, exactly like the terrible death adder, from which it is only to be
distinguished by its short feet.
Many of the lizard family are believed by the settlers to be
venomous, but such is not the case; I believe in fact that no four-
footed reptile has yet been discovered which is possessed of venom.
A remarkable power possessed by the guana, and perhaps by
others of the lizard family, is its power of resisting the poison,
ordinarily most destructive to animal life,—prussic acid. A middling
sized guana took a small bottle of prussic acid, and seemed rather to
have been exhilarated by it than otherwise; it was killed, however, by
a dose of arsenic and spirits of wine.
There is a large, ugly, amphibious lizard, about three feet long, met
with in Guiana, known as the Salempenta, or El Matêo, which is
thought (particularly by the Indians) good eating, the flesh being
white and tender. It is, however, much more ugly in appearance than
the guana.
Occasionally large lizards of other kinds, two or three feet in length,
are brought to the Rio market, and they are said to be excellent
eating.
In the reign of Cheops, as an Egyptian gentleman curious in poultry,
and famous even there for his success in producing strange birds,
was walking by the river Nile, he met with an egg, which, from its
appearance, he thought promised results out of the common way;
so, picking it up, he took it home, and gave directions for hatching it.
But some time after, on visiting his poultry yard, he found that all his
pets had disappeared, a few feathers only lying scattered about,
whilst a fearful animal rushed upon him open-mouthed. The fact
was, he had hatched a crocodile.
Mr. Joseph, in his History of Trinidad, tells us, that he has eaten the
eggs of the cayman or alligator, (without knowing what eggs they
were), and found them good. In form and taste they much resemble
the eggs of the domestic hen.
Dr. Buckland, the distinguished geologist, one day gave a dinner,
after dissecting a Mississippi alligator, having asked a good many of
the most distinguished of his classes to dine with him. His house and
his establishment were in good style and taste. His guests
congregated. The dinner-table looked splendid, with glass, china,
and plate, and the meal commenced with excellent soup. ‘How do
you like the soup?’ asked the doctor, after having finished his own
plate, addressing a famous gourmand of the day. ‘Very good,
indeed,’ answered the other; ‘turtle, is it not? I only ask because I do
not find any green fat.’ The doctor shook his head. ‘I think it has
something of a musky taste,’ said another; ‘not unpleasant, but
peculiar.’ ‘All alligators have,’ replied Buckland; ‘the cayman
particularly so. The fellow whom I dissected this morning——’ At this
stage there was a general rout of the whole guests. Every one
turned pale. Half-a-dozen started up from the table; two or three ran
out of the room; and only those who had stout stomachs remained to
the close of an excellent entertainment. ‘See what imagination is!’
said Buckland. ‘If I had told them it was turtle, or tarrapen, or
birdsnest soup, salt-water amphibia or fresh, or the gluten of a fish,
or the maw of a sea bird, they would have pronounced it excellent,
and their digestion been none the worse. Such is prejudice.’ ‘But was
it really an alligator?’ asked a lady. ‘As good a calf’s head as ever
wore a coronet,’ answered Buckland.
The Australian crocodile is more closely allied to the gavial of India
(Gavialis gangeticus), but is now often termed, like the American
species, an alligator. It is large and formidable; one captured by
Captain Stokes, in the Victoria River, and described in his published
journal, was fifteen feet long, and some have been taken still larger
than this. Like all animals of its class, the Australian crocodile is a
much more formidable enemy in the water than on shore; but even in
the latter position, it is by no means to be despised, for it progresses
with tolerable speed; and, although it seldom or never attacks a man
openly when out of its own proper element, still it is believed to have
a strong liking for human flesh, when that delicacy can safely be
obtained. One of these creatures paid a visit to a seaman, who was
asleep in his hammock on shore after a hard day’s labour, and being
unable to get conveniently at the man, it managed to drag off and
carry away the blanket which covered him; the sailor at first charged
his comrade with having made him the subject of a practical joke, but
the foot-prints of the huge reptile, and the discovery of the abstracted
blanket in the water, soon showed him the real character of his
nocturnal visitant.
The flesh of the crocodile is white and delicate, resembling veal. It
was a favourite dish among the Port Essington settlers, and among
the seamen employed in the surveys of the northern coast and rivers
of Australia. It is frequently pursued and killed for food by the
aborigines of that part of the country: the plan which they adopt is to
hunt it into some blind creek, when the reptile, finding itself closely
pressed, and no water near, usually forces its head, and perhaps the
upper part of its body in some sand-hole, fancying that it has, by so
doing, concealed itself from its pursuers. In this position it is
despatched with comparative ease. The crocodile makes a terrible
noise by snapping its jaws, particularly when in pain, or when it is
annoyed by the buzzing about its mouth and eyes of the mosquitoes
or other insects, which are found in myriads among the swamps,
creeks, and shallow waters, where it abides; this snapping noise is
often a startling sound to explorers encamping near waters
frequented by the monster.
The aboriginal tribes far to the southward of the localities in which
the crocodile has its habitation, have an imperfect knowledge of the
animal; stories of its voracity and fierceness have probably been
recounted at the friendly meetings of the tribes, and these stories
have in the same manner passed across the continent, changed and
magnified with each new relation, until on reaching the coast tribes
of the south, the crocodile became a nondescript animal of most
terrible form, frightening the blacks and puzzling the whites under the
name of the Bunyip.
In Dongola, at the present day, the crocodile is caught for the sake of
its flesh, which is regarded as a delicacy. The flesh and fat are eaten
by the Berbers, who consider them excellent. Both parts, however,
have a smell of musk so strong that few strangers can eat
crocodiles’ flesh without violent sickness following.
The Rev. Mr. Haensel, in his Letters on the Nicobar Islands, tells us
that ‘part of the flesh of the crocodile, or cayman, is good and
wholesome when well cooked. It tastes somewhat like pork, for
which I took it, and ate it with much relish, when I first came to
Nancauwery, till, on inquiry, finding it to be the flesh of a beast so
disgusting and horrible in its appearance and habits, I felt a loathing,
which I could never overcome; but it is eaten by both natives and
Europeans.’ The aboriginal natives of Trinidad considered a broiled
slice of alligator as a dainty morsel; and Mr. Joseph, the historian,
records having tasted it, and found it very palatable. Tastes in this,
as in other matters, differ.
Mr. Henry Koster, in his Travels in Brazil, says—‘I have been much
blamed by my friends for not having eaten of the flesh of the
alligator, and, indeed, I felt a little ashamed of my squeamishness
when I was shown by one friend a passage in a French writer, whose
name I forget, in which he speaks favourably of this flesh. However,
if the advocate for experimental eating had seen an alligator cut into
slices, he would, I think, have turned from the sight as quickly as I
did.’ The Indians of South America eat these creatures, but none of
the negroes will touch them.
Dr. Madden, in his Travels in Egypt, appears to have
experimentalized on the saurians as food—
‘I got’ (he says) ‘a small portion of a young crocodile, six feet long,
broiled, to ascertain its taste. The flavour a good deal resembles that
of a lobster, and, though somewhat tough, it might certainly be
considered very excellent food.’
The spectacled cayman (Alligator sclerops) is known under the
name of yacaré, or jacquare, in South America. Azara, the naturalist,
tells us that the eggs of this animal are white, rough, and as large as
those of a goose; they are deposited, to the number of sixty, in the
sand, and covered with dried grass. The Indians of Paraguay, and
other districts, esteem them as food, and also relish the white and
savoury flesh of this alligator, although it is dry and coarse. Cayman
is the Spanish word for alligator, and, according to Walker, alligator is
the name chiefly used for the crocodile in America.
Mr. Wallace thus describes an alligator hunt, as pursued on the lakes
in Mexiana, an island lying off the mouth of the Amazon:—‘A number
of negroes went into the water with long poles, driving the animals to
the side, where others awaited them with harpoons and lassos.
Sometimes, the lasso was at once thrown over their heads, or, if first
harpooned, a lasso was then secured to them, either over the head
or the tail, and they were easily dragged to the shore by the united
force of ten or twelve men. Another lasso was fixed, if necessary, so
as to fasten them at both ends; and, on being pulled out of the water,
a negro cautiously approached with an axe, and cut a deep gash
across the root of the tail, rendering this formidable weapon useless;
another blow across the neck disabled the head; and the animal was
then left, and pursuit of another commenced, which was speedily
reduced to the same condition.
‘Sometimes the cord would break, or the harpoon get loose, and the
negroes had often to wade into the water among the ferocious
animals in a very hazardous manner. They were from ten to eighteen
feet long, sometimes even twenty, with enormous mis-shapen heads
and fearful rows of long, sharp teeth. When a number were out on
the land, dead or dying, they were cut open, and the fat, which
accumulates in considerable quantities about the intestines, was
taken out, and made up into packets in the skins of the smaller ones,
taken off for the purpose. After killing twelve or fifteen, the overseer
and his party went off to another lake at a short distance, where the
alligators were more plentiful, and by night had killed nearly fifty. The
next day they killed twenty or thirty more, and got out the fat from the
others. In some of these lakes 100 alligators have been killed in a
few days; in the Amazon or Para rivers it would be difficult to kill as
many in a year. The fat is boiled down into oil and burned in lamps. It
has rather a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train-oil.’
The flesh of the land alligator, as it is termed by the Malays (the
Hydrosaurus salvator), which occasionally attains the length of five
or six feet, makes, it is said, good eating, and is much esteemed by
the natives for its supposed restorative and invigorating properties.
At Manila, these creatures are regularly sold in the markets, and
fetch a good price; the dried skin is readily bought by the Chinese,
who use it in some of their indescribable messes of gelatinous soup.
Another species eaten is the Hydrosaurus giganteus. Like that of the
Iguanæ of the New World, the flesh of these saurians is delicate
eating, and has been compared to that of a very young sucking pig.
The eggs of all the different kinds of alligators, and there are three or
four distinct species abounding in the Amazon and its tributary
streams, are eaten by the natives, though they have a very strong
musky odour. The largest species of alligator (Jacare nigra), reaches
a length of 15 or rarely 20 feet.
Mr. Wallace, in his Travels, records, that on one occasion, the
Indians on the Rio Negro supped off a young alligator they had
caught in a brook near, ‘but the musty odour was so strong that I
could not stomach it, and after getting down a bit of the tail, finished
my supper with mingau, or gruel of mandioc.’
Alligators are killed in great numbers in parts of the river Amazon, for
their fat, which is made into oil.
Hernandez states, that the flesh of the Axolotl, an aquatic reptile, is
very agreeable and wholesome. It is the Siren pisciformis of Shaw;
the Menobranchus pisciformis, Harl. It is commonly sold in the
markets of Mexico. When dressed after the manner of stewed eels,
and served up, with a stimulating sauce, it is esteemed a great
luxury. The flesh of the sauve-garde or common Teguixin of Brazil
(Teguixin monitor of Gray, Teius Teguixin) is eaten, and is said to be
excellent.
The flesh of the common ada of Mr. Gray is accounted excellent by
the natives of Guiana, who compare it to a fowl; its eggs are also in
great request. It is the Thorictes dracæna, Bibron; La grande
dragonne, Cuvier, and attains the length of four to six feet.
Some species of lizards are used as food in Burmah. One of these
especially, called pada, is stated not to be inferior to a fowl,—this is
probably the iguana. Nearly every species of serpent is eaten there,
after the head has been cut off. All have a fishy taste. Some few
kinds, however, although the teeth are carefully removed, cannot be
used, as the flesh appears to be poisonous.
The flesh of snakes is eaten by many in Dominica, particularly by the
French, some of whom are very fond of it; but it is reckoned
unwholesome, and to occasion the leprosy.
A snake called, by the natives of Western Australia wango, is
particularly liked by them as food.
There is a very venomous yellow-bellied snake, from five to six feet
long, called locally dubyt, which is much dreaded; but that is also
eaten by them.
The formidable lance-headed viper, of the Leeward Islands
(Trigonocephalus lanceolatus), feeds chiefly on birds, lizards, and
rats. After swallowing their prey, these snakes exhale a disgusting
odour; this does not prevent the negroes from eating their flesh,
which they find, it is said, free from any unpleasant flavour.
Mr. Buckland, in his interesting volume, Curiosities of Natural
History, says, he once had the opportunity of tasting a boa-
constrictor, that had been killed by an accident, and came into his
possession.
‘I tried the experiment,’ he observes, ‘and cooked a bit of him; it
tasted very like veal, the flesh being exceedingly white and firm. If I
had had nothing else, and could have forgotten what I was eating, I
could easily have made a dinner of it.’
The flesh of serpents was held in high repute by the ancients,
medicinally; and, when properly prepared, seems to have made a
very agreeable article of diet, corresponding with the turtle soup of
the present day. Even now, in the French tariff, vipers are subject to
a duty of 4s. the cwt.
In Guatemala, there is a popular belief, that lizards eaten alive cure
the cancer. The Indians are said to have made this important
discovery; and in 1780, the subject was investigated by European
physicians. I do not find the remedy in the modern pharmacopœias,
nevertheless, the inhabitants of Amatitlan, the town where the
discovery was first made, still adhere to their belief in its efficacy. The
man who first eat a live oyster or clam, was certainly a venturous
fellow, but the eccentric individual who allowed a live lizard to run
down his throat, was infinitely more so. There is no accounting for
taste.
Probably some of our learned physiologists and medical men may
be able to explain the therapeutic effects.
Some of the tribes of Southern Guinea, eat the boa-constrictor, or
python, and consider it delicate food. The more informed among
them, however, regard the practice as peculiarly heathenish. In
Ceylon, the flesh of the anaconda, which is said to devour travellers,
is much esteemed as food by some of the natives.
Who shall determine what is good eating? When we have gone over
so many delicacies, we must not be surprised at men’s eating
rattlesnakes, and pronouncing them capital food. An English writer,
who has recently published a work entitled A Ride over the Rocky
Mountains to Oregon and California, in describing the journey across
the great desert, says:—
‘12th July.—Shot two prairie dogs. Jem killed a hare and rattlesnake.
They were all capital eating, not excepting the snake, which the
parson cooked, and thought it as good as eel!’
The Australian aborigines, and some of the Kafir tribes, commonly
eat snakes roasted in the fire—and stewed snakes may, for aught I
know, be as good as stewed eels.
The Italians regale themselves with a jelly made of stewed vipers.
The Bushman of Africa catches serpents, not only as an article of
food, but to procure poison for his arrows.
Various reliable accounts before me prove that rattlesnakes are not
unfit for food, and may be placed among the multifarious articles
regarded by man as delicacies of the table. The negroes eat the
flesh of the rattlesnake, as well as that of other serpents. When the
skin and intestines are removed, no bad odour remains. A
correspondent of the Penny Magazine thus describes his experience
of fried rattlesnakes, at a tavern in Kaskaskia, a small town on the
Mississippi. He finds there a party of four or five travellers, who had
been on an exploring expedition:—
‘After a brief interview, they politely invited me to partake of the
supper they had already bespoken, informing me, at the same time,
that they considered themselves peculiarly fortunate in having
procured an excellent dish,—in fact, a great delicacy—in a place
where they expected to meet with but indifferent fare. What this great
delicacy was, they did not attempt to explain; and, having without
hesitation accepted of their invitation, I felt no inclination to make any
farther inquiries.
‘When the hour of supper arrived, the principal dish—and, indeed,
almost the only one upon the table—appeared to me to be a dish of
good-sized eels fried. I being the guest of my new acquaintances,
had the honor of being the first served with a plate of what the
person who presided called ‘Musical Jack.’ ‘Musical Jack,’ thought I,
is some species of eel peculiar to the Mississippi and its tributary
waters; and taking it for granted that it was all right, I forthwith began
to ply my knife and fork. ‘Stop,’ said the individual that occupied the
bottom of the table, before I had swallowed two mouthfuls. ‘You, sir,
have no idea, I presume, what you are eating; and since you are our
guest for the time being, I think it but right that you should have no
cause hereafter to think yourself imposed upon. The dish before you,
which we familiarly call ‘Musical Jack,’ is composed of rattlesnakes,
which the hunter who accompanies us in our tour of exploration was
so fortunate to procure for us this afternoon. It is far from the first
time that we have fared thus; and, although our own hunter skinned,
decapitated, and dressed the creatures, it was only through dint of
coaxing that our hostess was prevailed upon to lend her frying-pan
for so vile a purpose.’
‘Although curiosity had on many occasions prompted me to taste
strange and unsavoury dishes, I must confess that never before did I
feel such a loathing and disgust as I did towards the victuals before
me. I was scarcely able to listen to the conclusion of this short
address, ere I found it prudent to hurry out of the room; nor did I
return till supper was over, and ‘Musical Jack’ had either been
devoured or dismissed their presence.
‘As far as I recollect the circumstance, there was nothing peculiar or
disagreeable in the flavour of the small quantity I ate; and when the
subject was calmly discussed on the following day, one of the party
assured me he was really partial to the meat of the rattlesnake,
although some of the other members of his party had not been fully
able to conquer their early-conceived antipathies towards this snake;
but that during their long journey they had been occasionally
prevailed upon to make trial of a small quantity of the flesh, and were
willing to own that had they, been ignorant of its nature, they should
have pronounced it of a quality passably good.
‘Ever afterwards in my visits to Kaskaskia, I narrowly examined
every dish of a dubious character that was placed before me, in
order to satisfy myself that it was not ‘Musical Jack.’’
Dr. Lang, in one of his works, gives us an account of snake cooking
in Australia:—
‘One of the black fellows took the snake, and placing it on the branch
of a tree, and striking it on the back of the head repeatedly with a
piece of wood, threw it into the fire. The animal was not quite dead,
for it wriggled for a minute or two in the fire, and then became very
stiff and swollen, apparently from the expansion of the gases
imprisoned in its body. The black fellow then drew it out of the fire,
and with a knife cut through the skin longitudinally on both sides of
the animal, from the head to the tail. He then coiled it up as a sailor
does a rope, and laid it again upon the fire, turning it over again and
again with a stick till he thought it sufficiently done on all sides, and
superintending the process of cooking with all the interest
imaginable. When he thought it sufficiently roasted, he thrust a stick
into the coil, and laid it on the grass to cool, and when cool enough
to admit of handling, he took it up again, wrung off its head and tail,
which he threw away, and then broke the rest of the animal by the
joints of the vertebræ into several pieces, one of which he threw to
the other black fellow, and another he began eating himself with
much apparent relish. Neither Mr. Wade nor myself having ever
previously had the good fortune to witness the dressing of a snake
for dinner by the black natives, we were much interested with the
whole operation; and as the steam from the roasting snake was by
no means unsavoury, and the flesh delicately white, we were each
induced to try a bit of it. It was not unpalatable by any means,
although rather fibrous and stringy like ling-fish. Mr. Wade observed,
that it reminded him of the taste of eels; but as there was a strong
prejudice against the use of eels as an article of food in the west of
Scotland, in my boyhood, I had never tasted an eel, and was
therefore unable to testify to the correctness of this observation.
There was doubtless an equally strong prejudice to get over in the
case of a snake, and for an hour or two after I had partaken of it, my
stomach was ever and anon on the point of insurrection at the very
idea of the thing; but, thinking it unmanly to yield to such a feeling, I
managed to keep it down.’
In a paper which I published in the Journal of the Society of Arts, in
October 1856, (vol. 4, p. 872,) I entered very fully into a description
of the various snakes which are met with in different countries,
poisonous or harmless, and to that paper I would refer those who
wish to obtain descriptive details—scientific or general—not bearing
on the subject of food, at present under our consideration.
The consumption of frogs is not, as is very often supposed, confined
to the French. It is now also indulged in, to a considerable extent, by
Americans; and frogs appear to command a high price in the New
York market. An enthusiastic writer tries to convince us, that the only
objection to frogs as an article of diet is a mere prejudice on the part
of those who have never eaten them. ‘In what respect are they
worse than eels? The frog who swallows young birds and ducklings
is surely as clean a feeder as the snake-like creature that dines on
dead dogs, and makes the celebrity of the ait at Twickenham. Or is a
frog less savoury than a rat? And yet what a price was paid for rats
at the siege of Kars! If the garrison could only have been supplied
with lots of frogs—literal or metaphorical—the Russians would never
have taken the place. Again, does a snail—the large escargot, which
people are so fond of in Paris—appear more tempting than a frog?
Or that animal picked out of its shell with a pin, and called, in vulgar
parlance, a winkle. ‘Away, then,’ as indignant orators say, ‘away,
then, with this cant of false delicacy and squeamishness, and the
very first opportunity you have, O lector fastidioso! order A Dish of
Frogs. They are quite as good as whitebait, when assisted by a flask
of Rhenish.’
The Athenæum, also, recently came out in favour of frogs. ‘There is
no reason,’ it remarks, ‘why we should eschew frogs and relish turtle;
still less is there for our eating one or two of the numerous edible
funguses, which our island produces, and condemning all the rest.’
The green or edible frog (Rana esculenta) is a native of Europe,
some parts of Asia, and also of Northern Africa. It is in high request
on the Continent for its flesh, the meat of the hind quarters, which is
alone used, being delicate and well tasted. In Vienna, where the
consumption of these frogs is very considerable, they are preserved
alive, and fattened in froggeries (grenouillières) constructed for the
express purpose.
In America, the flesh of the huge bull-frog (R. pipiens, Harl.; R.
mugiens, Catesby,) is tender, white, and affords excellent eating.
Some bull-frogs weigh as much as half-a-pound, but the hind legs
are the only parts used as food. They make excellent bait for the
larger cat-fish.
In the Antilles, another huge bull-frog is reared in a state of
domestication for the table. It is the Rana ocellata, Linn; R. gigas of
Spix; Cystignathus ocellatus, Wagler.
Toads seem also to be eaten by the French, though unwittingly.
Professor Dumeril used to relate, in his lectures at the Jardin des
Plantes, that the frogs brought to the markets in Paris are caught in
the stagnant waters round Montmorenci, in the Bois de Vincennes,
Bois de Boulogne, &c. The people employed in this traffic separate
the hind quarters and legs of the frogs from the body, denude them
of their skin, arrange them on skewers, as larks are done in this
country, and then bring them in that state to market. In seeking for
frogs, these dealers often meet with toads, which they do not reject,
but prepare them in the same way as they would frogs; and, as it is
impossible to determine whether the hind quarters of these
creatures, after the skin is stripped off, belong to frogs or toads, it
continually happen that great numbers of the supposed frogs sold in
Paris for food are actually toads.[18]
This account of the mode of bringing the frogs to market, in Paris,
does not tally with that given by my friend, Mr. F. T. Buckland, in his
Curiosities of Natural History; he says:—
‘In France, frogs are considered a luxury, as any bon vivant ordering
a dish of them at the Trois Frères, at Paris, may, by the long price,
speedily ascertain. Not wishing to try such an expensive experiment
in gastronomy, I went to the large market in the Faubourg St.
Germain, and enquired for frogs. I was referred to a stately-looking
dame at a fish-stall, who produced a box nearly full of them, huddling
and crawling about, and occasionally croaking as though aware of
the fate to which they were destined. The price fixed was two a
penny, and having ordered a dish to be prepared, the Dame de la
Halle dived her hand in among them, and having secured her victim
by the hind legs, she severed him in twain with a sharp knife; the
legs, minus skin, still struggling, were placed on a dish; and the
head, with the fore-legs affixed, retained life and motion, and
performed such motions that the operation became painful to look at.
These legs were afterwards cooked at the restaurateur’s, being
served up fried in bread crumbs, as larks are in England; and most
excellent eating they were, tasting more like the delicate flesh of the
rabbit than anything else I can think of. I afterwards tried a dish of
the common English frog, but his flesh is not so white nor so tender
as that of his French brother.’
The Chinese seem also to appreciate frogs, for Mr. Fortune, in
describing a Chinese market, says—
‘Frogs seemed much in demand. They are brought to market in tubs
and baskets, and the vender employs himself in skinning them as he
sits making sales. He is extremely expert at this part of his business.
He takes up the frog in his left hand, and with a knife, which he holds
in his right, chops off the fore part of its head. The skin is then drawn
back over the body and down to the feet, which are chopped off and
thrown away. The poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless, and
feetless, is then thrown into another tub, and the operation is
repeated on the rest in the same way. Every now and then the artist
lays down his knife, and takes up his scales to weigh these animals
for his customers, and make his sales. Everything in this civilised
country, whether it be gold or silver, geese or frogs, is sold by
weight.’
According to Seba and Madame Merian, the negroes eat the flesh of
the Surinam toad (Pipa Surinamensis).
Frogs or toads of an enormous size (Crapaux) are very numerous in
Dominica, and much esteemed as an article of food; the flesh, when
fricasseed, being preferred by the English, as well as French, to
chickens; and, when made into soup, recommended for the sick,
especially in consumptive cases.
Wallace, in his Travels on the Amazon, tells us, ‘his Indians went
several times early in the morning to the gapo to catch frogs, which
they obtained in great numbers, stringing them on a sipo, and boiling
them entire, entrails and all, and devoured them with much gusto.
The frogs are mottled of various colours, have dilated toes, and are
called jui.’
The eating of frogs seems to be indulged in in the Philippines, for a
traveller tells us that—
‘After the rains there may generally be procured, by those who like
them, frogs, which are taken from the ditch round the walls in great
numbers, and are then fat and in good condition for eating, making a
very favourite curry of some of the Europeans, their flesh being very
tender.’[19]
 FISH.
More than two-thirds of our globe being covered by the waters of the
ocean, and of the remaining third a great part being washed by
extensive rivers, or occupied by lakes, ponds, or marshes, these
watery realms, teeming with life, furnish man with a great variety of
food. Some of these have already passed under consideration in the
reptilia, and others in the great class mammalia, as seals, morses,
and manatees, which can remain at no great distance from the sea,
together with whales, which never leave it, though constantly
obliged, by the nature of their respiration, to seek its surface.
Mollusca, crustacea, annelides, and zoophytes are almost peculiar
to this element, having but few scattered representatives on earth;
but, amidst all its varied inhabitants, there are none more exclusively
confined to its realms, none that rule them with such absolute sway,
none more remarkable for number, variety of form, beauty of colour,
and, above all, for the infinite advantages which they yield to man,
than the great class of fishes. In fact, their evident superiority has
caused their name to pass as a general appellation to all the
inhabitants of the deep. Whales are called fish, crabs are called
shell-fish, and the same term is used to denote oysters; though the
first are mammalia, the second articulata, and the third mollusca.
Milton has well described the abundance of fish—

——‘Each creek and bay,

With fry innumerable swarm and shoals
Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales,
Glide under the green waves; * * *
* * * part single, or with mate
Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray; or sporting, with quick glance,
Show to the sun their way’d coats dropp’d with gold.’
The modes of preserving fish are various; they are salted and dried,
smoked and potted, baked or marinated, preserved in oil, and
pounded in a dry mass.
Several savage nations possess the art of preparing fish in a great
variety of ways, even as a kind of flour, bread, &c.
Dr. Davy, commenting upon the remarkable facts respecting the
exemption of fish-eating persons from certain diseases, suggests
that there is undoubtedly something in the composition of fish which
is not common to other articles of food, whether vegetable or animal.
He believes this consists of iodine. He says, that in all instances in
which he sought for this substance in sea fish he has found it; and
also traces of it in migratory fish, but not in fresh-water fish.
The trials he made were limited to red gurnard, mackerel, haddock,
common cod, whiting, sole, ling, herring, pilchard, salmon, sea-trout,
smelt, and trout.
The experiment was as follows.—He dried and charred, lixiviated,
reduced to ashes, and again washed from a quarter of a pound to a
pound of fish.
A good deal of limy matter was afforded from the washings of the
charcoal of the sea fish.
The saline matter was principally common salt, had a pretty strong
alkaline reaction, and by the blue hue produced by starch and aqua
regia, afforded a clear proof of the presence of iodine. Only a slight
trace was detected in the fresh-water salmon, sea-trout, and smelt.
In the spent salmon descending to the sea, only just a perceptible
trace was observable, and no trace in either parr or trout.
Dr. Davy states further, that he has detected it in an unmistakable
manner in the common shrimp; also in the cockle, mussel, oyster,
crab, &c.; nor is this remarkable, considering that it enters into the
greater part of the food of fishes.
He observes, also, that cod liver oil is well established as an
alterative or cure of pulmonary consumption, and as this oil contains
iodine, the inference is, that sea fish, generally, may be alike
beneficial. The practical application of this inquiry is obvious. A
suggestion is also made as to the efficacy of drying fish, even
without salt, the drying being complete to the exclusion of even
hydroscopic water, for the use of the explorer and traveller.
The inference as to the salutary effects of fish depending on the
presence of iodine, in the prevention of tubercular disease, might be
extended to goitre, which it is known has already yielded to iodine.
This formidable complaint appears to be completely unknown to the
inhabitants of sea-ports and sea-coasts. Respecting another and
concluding question, viz., the different parts of fish, it is to be
remarked that, so far as experiments have gone, the effects will not
be the same from all parts of the fish, because the inorganic
elements are not the same. The examples chosen are the liver,
muscle, roe, or melt. In the ash of the liver and muscle of sea-fish,
Dr. Davy always found a large proportion of saline matter, common
salt, abounding, with a minute portion of iodine, rather more in the
liver than the muscle, and free alkali, or alkali in a state to occasion
an alkaline reaction, as denoted by test-paper; whilst in the roe or
melt there has been detected very little saline matter, no trace of
iodine, nor of free alkali; on the contrary, a free acid, viz.,
phosphorus, analogous to what occurs in the yolk of an egg, and in
consequence of which it is very difficult to digest either the roe or
melt of a fish, or the yolk of an egg. The same conclusion on the
same ground is applicable to fresh-water fish, viz., the absence of
iodine.
A very common North American dish is chowder, which is thus
prepared:—
Fry brown several slices of pork; cut each fish into five or six pieces;
flour, and place a layer of them in your pork fat; sprinkle on a little
pepper and salt; add cloves, mace, and sliced onions; if liked, lay on
bits of the fried pork, and crackers soaked in cold water. Repeat this
till you put in all the fish; turn on water just sufficient to cover them,
and put on a heated bake pan lid. After stewing about 20 minutes,
take up the fish, and mix two teaspoonfuls of flour with a little water,
and stir it into the gravy, adding a little pepper and butter. A tumbler
of wine, catsup, and spices will improve it. Cod and bass make the